A123Systems Receives $30 Million Investment to Support Scale Up
22 October 2007
A123Systems, developer and producer of patent-pending Nanophosphate lithium-ion batteries, has completed a $30 million round of funding, bringing the total capital invested in the company to $132 million.
A123Systems will use these funds to increase production capacity for new contract awards for hybrid electric (earlier post), plug-in hybrid electric (earlier post) and extended range electric vehicles (i.e., the Chevrolet Volt) with major automakers, including a contract to co-develop proprietary cells for the GM E-Flex program. (Earlier post.)
A123Systems also continues to expand its fast-growing power tool battery business with Black & Decker Corporation, the world’s largest manufacturer of cordless tools.
Demand for the company’s products has grown significantly in the past year and A123Systems has recently opened its new, state-of-the-art manufacturing site for the company’s Automotive Class Lithium Ion batteries. (Earlier post. In addition to its lithium-ion manufacturing technology, the new site was built to support TS-16949 quality systems and is designed for large scale handling of nano-materials, advanced particle control equipment and clean room environments needed to support the stringent manufacturing and quality requirements of the automotive market.
Investors in the company include General Electric, Procter & Gamble, Alliance Capital, Motorola, Qualcomm, North Bridge Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital, CMEA Ventures, FA Technology Ventures, OnPoint, Carruth Management, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Desh Deshpande, the company’s board chairman.
Another positive step forward for PHEVs and manufacturers utilizing the A123 technology. Who says we're not making progress?
Posted by: gr | 22 October 2007 at 11:18 AM
Great news.
A123 also got a new customer for their batteries. This time it is a motorboard manufacture called Roth Motor Mompany http://www.rothmotors.com/. They sell a motorboard for $800 powered by the A123 batteries. This may be for fun mostly but I bet it has the potential to sell very well. I would not be surprised if they could manage to sell more than a million of these motorboards in the next 36 months. The Roth website does not say how much kWh the A123 battery is but the board weights 16 lbs so I guess that 0.3 kWh or about 6 lbs can’t be far from the actual number.
More info here http://www.autobloggreen.com/gallery/motorboard-electric-scooter/448137/
Posted by: Henrik | 22 October 2007 at 11:34 AM
Looks like big corporate names are securing this bit of intellectual property.
Posted by: jack | 22 October 2007 at 11:43 AM
re:big corporate names, if many different companies in different industries are pushing A123's technology, that will help immensely with scaling up production and bringing the costs down, as well as preventing petrochemical interests from squashing the technology. So it should be a win-win for the companies and the consumers.
It's also a damn sight better than what AltairNano has been doing.
Posted by: AES | 22 October 2007 at 01:45 PM
Speaking of motorboards, I wish Go-Ped would use these. I think their board is a bit more practical.
http://www.goped.com/products/esr750ex/default.asp
Posted by: domenick | 22 October 2007 at 04:55 PM
Dominic
Thank you for the link to GoPed. I can’t see that the motorboard by GoPed is more “practical”. It weights 59.5 lbs compared to only 16 lbs for the A123 powered Roth Motorboard. Unless you are Arnold then you just don’t carry the GoPed under your arm in the metro or indoor at school. The boards are about equally powerful with the Roth board having a max load of 250 lbs while the GoPed has a lax load of 400 lbs. The extended range version of the GoPed board is 12 miles in economy mode and the extended range version of the Roth board is 20 miles. The Roth board is even selling for less at $800 while the GoPed in mind board is $999.
I admit that the website of GoPed is more informative and practical than Roth’s website but I guess that Roth right now is in the process of setting up their web and in a few months it will be fine as well.
Posted by: Henrik | 23 October 2007 at 12:52 AM
Glad to see people are beginning to talk about the Motorboards. I just started working for Roth Motors as a labor of love. I bought a bunch of Motorboards for the cast and crew of a hit TV show I was associate producer on and fell in love with them. Which, strangely enough, is how I came to work for Roth Motors. Just to clarify, make no mistake, though Motorboards look like fun and are, they're desgined for adults to get from point A to B. Totally portable and powerful little things. And yes, the A123 batteries are amazing.
For now, what separates us from a company like Segway (no need to compare us to Go-Ped's lead acid!) is our advertising and marketing budget (or lack thereof!). If I had my way, I'd have video up on our site yesterday showing it to you in action. (coming soon!) We are relying on people like you to help spread the word for now. You can read our press-release if you want some more info:
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2007/10/prweb561533.htm
Oh, the answer to battery weight is the standard battery pack weights 1.5 lbs. But you can get upgrades for more distance (they only add a few ounces).
Is it wrong to say all this? I'm just being totally honest about who I am as I came across this blog and wanted to chime in since people had questions. Please don't ban me! Just slap my wrist if necessary.
cheers - Linda
Posted by: Linda B. | 14 November 2007 at 08:47 PM